Computer USB Stuff

[Marchrider]

I have a dash-cam type camera fixed to my bike, to view any of the footage i have to take the camera off the bike, bring it into the house and plug the USB into the computer, this is all rather a nuisance, (a minor one) but still an inconvenience.

Is there any device that I could plug the cameras USB lead into whilst it is still on my bike in the garage, so I could then view the files through the router ?

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

WIll it plug directly into the computer - and can you take your computer/tablet/phone out to the garage??

If not then you would need to have some wort of computer in the garage
you could possibly get a Raspberry Pi and a few bits and pieces
but they can get rather techy to set up
but old ones can be found for just over £10 on ebay

plus the wifi bits and power

 

[wiggydiggy]

I was just typing something similar to @ebikeerwidnes has said, you need a device in your garage thats connected to your network, then plug the camera into that.

Another option is if the camera uses SD cards then you can buy wireless SD cards, these can be connected your home network. Alternatively I think wireless SD readers exist.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Just been looking and you can get longer USB cables
and they can be extended using "stuff" 9 see here
so if you have a garage close to your house then you could plug the usb in in the garage and connect to it in the house

if they are close enough anyway

 

[Marchrider]

WIll it plug directly into the computer - and can you take your computer/tablet/phone out to the garage??

If not then you would need to have some wort of computer in the garage
you could possibly get a Raspberry Pi and a few bits and pieces
but they can get rather techy to set up
but old ones can be found for just over £10 on ebay

plus the wifi bits and power

No, its a desk top type computer and it couldn't be further from the garage if I tried

Now there's a thought, Raspberry Pies - I'm sure we have a box of those down in the workshop, someone handed them in ages ago, we were all thinking food and were a little dissapointed when we opened the box

So what is invloved in getting a raspberry pie to work, would the router see it, would it need a monitor ? I think we got one of the other blokes sons to set one up so as I could access the 3d printer from home, i'm thinking that was one of the raspberry pies but not sure

I'm going to go down to the workshop and see if I can find them, see what is attched to the 3d printer as well

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Don't you have to detach the camera from the bike anyway, to recharge it?

 

[HLaB]

Has it got an external memory card? mine has and I could eject it and take it into a card reader. But its easier for me to take my whole camera off the bike. I use the camera in the underwater case, I've no sound as a result, but its just a case of sliding the camera out.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

The Pi will require a power supply and a monitor and keyboard and mouse like most computers
but cheap ones will do - it does need an HDMI type connector fro the monitor
assuming you wifi will reach then you need a usb wifi adapter to get it only the network

Oh - and it doesn;t run Windows - it runs Linux which is better - to a techy definition of better
and the computer are slow for modern version of RPi so it will be sloooooow
There is help on the WWW to get things done

Once it is all set up the pi will probably provide power to recharge the camera - maybe - depending on the age of the Pi

but it should all work
best way of getting the files onto the main computer is probably to use a web browser and connect to Gmail (etc) and email it to yourself

Good Luck

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

The Pi will require a power supply and a monitor and keyboard and mouse like most computer

Not entirely accurate. You will need something with a monitor, keyboard and mouse to set the Pi up but, depending on the solution, you can then run it without and monitor etc.

I have one at home running Plex and Pi-hole that runs that way and I SSH into it when necessary.

 

[Marchrider]

the one for our 3d printer is a Pi and it doesn't have a monitor

was hoping I could just power up the Pi, plug in the USB lead to the camera and the files would be available if File manager - could it work like that ?
I think this is a Pi ??

@Pat "5mph" - have an external battery on a tether (gives 20 hours) so only need to charge it once a week
@HLaB use one of those cases as well, camera never comes out, so no chance of getting to the SD card

 

[markemark]

As far as I know there’s no device that can wirelessly connect directly to a dumb usb storage device. You’ll either need a long cable or some sort of computer at each end and these devices could connect wirelessly over WiFi. You could potentially buy a wireless nas drive and keep that in the garage and plug the camera via cable into that.


You could potentially copy the camera’s content to your smart phone using suitable addons and apps.
Or, for a chunk of money you could buy a usb duplicator that will copy the content of the camera onto another usb and carry that to your pc

But the latter two options m are still effectively moving the content veteeen devices and not connecting them directly. The only way to connect them directly I can think of is to add a pc or a nas between and connect these.

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

I assume that you can connect to WiFi from the garage? If so you can connect the camera to the Pi and then SFTP into it from your PC and transfer files over.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Not entirely accurate. You will need something with a monitor, keyboard and mouse to set the Pi up but, depending on the solution, you can then run it without and monitor etc.

I have one at home running Plex and Pi-hole that runs that way and I SSH into it when necessary.

True - last time I fiddled with one was for a charity and it was in the roof so I set it up like that

 

[richardfm]

Not entirely accurate. You will need something with a monitor, keyboard and mouse to set the Pi up but, depending on the solution, you can then run it without and monitor etc.

I have one at home running Plex and Pi-hole that runs that way and I SSH into it when necessary.

The other possible inaccuracy is the need for a USB WiFi adapter. That depends on the Raspberry Pi model. Newer ones have built in WiFi (and Bluetooth).